「 𝐇𝐲𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐲 」

extra. ♡

Montague surely had his hands quite full with his newly-adopted neko.  he didn't know how Pollyanna could tolerate it all the time.

"Olive!  sit down and relax!  quit jumping all over the place!!"

"but I'm boooooored!  you have to play with me; Pollyanna said so!!  I need mental stimulation so I can get tired out by the end of the day.  remember when she said that??"

"ugh, I suppose she said something like that…"

he agreed to take Olive in, but he wasn't expecting this caretaker thing to be this physically exhausting.  then, an idea seemed to come to him.

"hey!  Olive!  do you want to go to the mall?"

"oh, yeah!  I haven't been to a mall in a long time."

"great.  go get dressed."

when Montague was ready to go, Olive was still getting ready.

"Olive, come on.  it's getting late.  do you still wanna go to the mall or what??"

"I do wanna go!"  Olive whined.  "Monty!"

Monty sighed and walked to the room Olive was getting dressed in.  he seemed to be genuinely struggling to pull on his long-sleeved shirt.  he hadn't even put on anything else.

"were you…  struggling with this shirt that whole time?"

Olive nodded with tear-filled eyes.

"I wanted to do it by myself, but I couldn't."

Montague took the shirt off and flipped it around.  then he pulled it over Olive's head.

"there.  better?"

Olive sniffled and nodded while wiping his eye.  "yeah. "

Montague chuckled and held out his hand.

"okay, come on, now.  let's find some pants for you and then we can go."

"yay!  thank you, Monty ♡"

Pollyanna was right.  by the time they came back from doing activities for the rest of the day, Olive was extraordinarily sleepy and everything was calm for the first time in a while.

"goodnight, now," said Montague, as he tucked Olive underneath the covers.

"Monty, I wanna ask you something."

"… yeah?"  Monty wasn't sure how reasonable the question would be since Olive was so fatigued.

"do you think…  we'd fall in love one day?"

"you and I?"

Olive nodded. 

"… with…  each other…?"

Olive giggled.  "yes, Monty."

"I…  uh…"

"you don't have to answer it now," said Olive.  "if you ever do come up with something, you can tell me.  even if it's years from now.  I don't really plan on going anywhere."

finally, Olive fell asleep and Montague was left with those words.  he pet Olive's head as he slept.

"... I'll give you an answer one day."